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poses a desire of instruction, and obedience to the teach
ings of the Church.
The special grace attached to the Feast of the Epi
phany is the grace of growth in the supernatural life.
As our Lord, on Christmas day, is spiritually born in
the souls of those who receive Him, so on this Feast
He manifests Himself more clearly, and gives to the
soul an increase of wisdom, virtue and merit.
The adoration of the Magi is a figure, and also a pre
diction, of the conversion of the gentiles, the universal
of the faith and the formation of the Ca
propagation
tholic church. Bethlehem was the birthplace, not of
but also of His Cfrurch ! she will manifest
Jesus only,
herself later in the cenacle, at the Descent of the
Holy Ghost. First outlined on the Epiphany, at Pen
tecost, she will be definitely formed. In the stable of
Bethlehem we see combined all the elements of which
the Church of Jesus Christ will be composed : the divine
Infant, who is her Head, the blessed Virgin, her
Mother, St. Joseph, her chief protector and lastly the
shepherds and the Magi representing the great Chris
tian family. For this reason, on the Feast of the Epi
phany, the Church in Rome celebrates also the FEAST
OF PROPAGANDA which is charged with the missions
for the evangelization of the whole world.
In former days certain Churches, such as those of
Spain and Gaul, observed the practice of administering
solemn Baptism on this Feast, as on the Vigils of Easter
and Pentecost.
From the earliest ages, in Christian Africa, we find
the practice observed of blessing rivers and wells. The
fourth antiphon of the Office of Lauds, in which the
seas and the rivers are called upon to praise the Lord,
recalls this practice. These customs, however are no